That means Keating Research/Onsight Public Affairs claims this year’s “closest to the pin” award (Public Policy Polling also missed it by a point, but in campaigns I favor conservative forecasts).

Each of those firms earned one of my imaginary medals for their read of Colorado’s electoral landscape as the campaign drew to a close.

Also this year, I’m relegating one pollster to the minors, a la the Englsish Premier League. After two cycles of producing polls that hardly reflect the actual view of Colorado voters, I see no reason why any reputable journalist would even mention that firm’s name without also noting its recent track record.

The nation’s pundits and editorial writers are just starting to deconstruct what happened on Election Day. Here are takeouts of some early analyses:

A nation vocally disgusted with the status quo has reinforced it by ratifying existing control of the executive branch and both halves of the legislative branch. After three consecutive “wave” elections in which a party gained at least 20 House seats, and at a moment when approval of Congress has risen — yes, risen — to 21 percent, voters ratified Republican control of the House, keeping in place those excoriated as obstructionists by the president the voters retained. Come January, Washington will be much as it has been, only more so.— George Will, Washington Post Writers Group

The Republicans need to get past the denial and isolation stage and move on, hopefully to bargaining and acceptance. They spent four years trying to keep the economy in bad shape so Mr. Obama would lose. He won anyway, and the economy is teetering on the fiscal cliff. Standing around talking about no-tax pledges and nominating more right wingers is not going to help.– Andrew Rosenthal, The New York Times

The costs are higher now if Republicans just keep saying no. They can no longer use their desire to defeat Obama as a rallying cry. They cannot credibly insist that tax increases can never be part of a solution to the nation’s fiscal problems. And now Obama will have the strongest argument a politician can offer. Repeatedly, he asked the voters to settle Washington’s squabbles in his favor. On Tuesday, they did. And so a president who took office four years ago on a wave of emotion may now have behind him something more valuable and durable: a majority that thought hard about his stewardship and decided to let him finish the job he had begun.— E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post Writers Group

The 2012 election was about Barack Obama and preserving his historic legacy. Yet second terms are generally miserable affairs for presidents, and Obama will likely prove no exception, especially with a Republican House to investigate scandals. For all of the problems that this election revealed to the Republicans about Hispanics, women, and working class voters, they are still positioned to make a strong showing in the 2014 midterms and to take back the White House in 2016.— Jonathan S. Tobin, Commentary Magazine

It’s not true that Republicans needed better candidates. They had excellent contenders. The problem was that the electable ones couldn’t leap the lunacy barrier erected by the right wing. They couldn’t clinch nominations. Or they withdrew from races in the face of the party base’s social nastiness, scientific ignorance and fiscal irresponsibility.— Froma Harrop, The Providence Journal

Great nations and proud empires have always collapsed from within before they were conquered from without. President Obama’s re-election mirrors the self-indulgent, greedy and envious nation we are rapidly becoming.— Cal Thomas, Creators SyndicateRead more…

Being an objective journalist does not mean always equivocating, as many believe they have to do. Sometimes impartial analysis forces one to make certain conclusions that are objective but which displease one segment of the population. In this case, as a Political Analyst who concluded President Barack Obama was going to win reelection, it was not based on any bias towards the President. Rather, it was founded on an impartial review of the following facts. Here is why I believe Obama won re-election despite high unemployment and a relatively sluggish and still fragile economy.

THE OBVIOUS

Much already has been said about how Governor Romney hurt his own campaign by dramatically changing so many positions. The electorate could understand this occurring a few times as a person’s positions evolved but the sheer number of reversals and the significance of the issues made Romney appear to have no sincere beliefs. This was exacerbated by his attempts to parse Romneycare and Obamacare when most voters realized the latter was a national version of the former.

In addition, Romney’s sharp turn to the right, which he believed was necessary to win the Republican nomination, put him on a path which made him less attractive to unaffiliated and uncommitted voters as well as potentially convertible Democrats. By taking far too long to cast himself in a more centrist mode, when he attempted to do so, it was not seen as sincere. And due to his position changes, it was difficult for him to appear convincing. In essence, he undermined his own credibility. Read more…

False Dilemma is the fallacy of oversimplification that offers two options when in reality more options are available. Black or white, night or day, Leno or Letterman. For the cognitive miser, the intellectual equivalent of the couch potato, these are the fast foods of citizenry that allow us to propose solutions to problems without any tedious thinking. You’re either with us or against us.

Sometimes you find yourself between a rock and hard place. When you do, you are actually at Morton’s fork, a choice between two equally unpleasant alternatives. Named for John Morton, Archbishop of Canterbury who observed the man living modestly and concluded that he must be saving money and therefore be able to pay taxes. At the same time he observed the man living lavishly, he probably had a refrigerator or something, and concluded that he must be rich and could therefore afford taxes. If I did this to you they would call it extortion.

Henry Ford offered the Model T in any color the customer wanted “as long as it was black.” Known as Hobson’s choice, this particular model asks us to take it or leave it. We usually do. Read more…

Election Day, along with the end of the political ad season, is finally here. As you wait for tonight’s results to start rolling in, here are a few end-of-the-election cartoons — domestic and foreign included — for your enjoyment.

This is not a “should we or shouldn’t we legalize marijuana” story. This is a “what if?” story: “If marijuana is legalized, how can we prevent a commercial marijuana industry from targeting underage children like the tobacco and alcohol industries do?”

Colorado voters will decide whether to fully legalize marijuana for recreational use. Without citing any sources, proponents claim “many studies” suggest regulation would make it less likely that those under 21 could get access to marijuana.

Because no state or nation has fully legalized marijuana for recreational use, such studies are speculative at best. But we have two addictive drugs — alcohol and tobacco — that are legal. Their historical marketing practices targeting children, and the legal constraints that are forcing them to reduce such practices, can help us think about how to regulate a commercial marijuana industry if voters legalize the drug. Read more…

The phrase, “First, do no harm” has guided doctors for thousands of years. It is a maxim I follow when I treat sick patients and a policy I believe should guide Colorado voters when they head to the polls this November. Unfortunately, this ethical standard has not been embraced in the current, harmful policy of marijuana prohibition. This is why I’m joining 300 other Colorado doctors in endorsing Amendment 64.

Marijuana prohibition is a classic case of the so-called “cure” (criminalization) being worse than the “disease” (the private adult use of marijuana). Criminalization of cannabis not only labels 10,000 Coloradans a year as criminals but also burdens law enforcement and courts with petty offenses committed by nonviolent actors. It fuels the black market, enriches gangs and cartels, and deprives the Colorado economy of necessary tax revenue. To me, that’s a lot of harm.

Most people who try marijuana do not develop dependency issues, but in some cases, people do abuse marijuana. Prohibition makes the problem worse where regulation would help. Why not spend the massive amounts of money we currently spend chasing after marijuana users on programs that work instead, like prevention and education? Read more…

Luke M. Buchanan, 24, of Washington, D.C., is charged with unlawful sexual contact, a misdemeanor, after an incident Tuesday in Loveland. He is accused of grabbing a young woman’s breasts while applying a campaign sticker to her shirt.

Buchanan has since been fired from his job with the Colorado Democratic Party.

One of the more strained exaggerations that took place in the recent presidential debates was the one in which President Obama declared his love for energy development. Natural gas and oil production are at the highest levels in decades, the President proclaimed in the second debate at Hofstra University, adding “We have seen increases in coal production and coal employment” — a proclamation no doubt aimed at convincing those in energy-rich Mountain West states such as Colorado and Nevada that he is no enemy of the conventional energy development on which their economies depend. A more careful look at the Obama record, however, reveals a consistent pattern of hostility to western interests.

One of the most important sources of employment in the West is energy development. Colorado has in recent years made a focused and not yet entirely successful effort to become a hub of renewable energy development, but in 2008 fully $12 billion (or 5%) of Colorado’s gross state product was the result of mining and conventional minerals such as oil, gas and coal — a contribution larger than the entire construction industry of the state, on a par with its significant transportation and utilities complex, and almost as large as the Centennial State’s entire manufacturing economy. The story is even more dramatic in neighboring states – in New Mexico, mining last year accounted for almost 8% of gross state product, bigger than any other sector besides government, real estate, and professional services; and in Wyoming mining was by far the largest contributor to gross state product and was the number one employer outside of government.Read more…

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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